For the last fifteen years, if a novel was published, John Freeman has been there to greet it. As a critic for more than two hundred newspapers worldwide, and current editor of Granta, he has reviewed thousands of books and interviewed scores of writers, and in How to Read a Novelist, he shares with us what he has learned. How to Read a Novelist collects his very best profiles (many of them new or completely rewritten for this volume) of the very best novelists of our time. What emerges is an illuminating, definitive, and idiosyncratic guide to a diverse and lively literary culture. From such international stars as Doris Lessing, Haruki Murakami, Salman Rushdie, and Mo Yan; to American masters such as Don DeLillo, Norman Mailer, Toni Morrison, Marilynne Robinson, Philip Roth, John Updike, and David Foster Wallace; to the new guard of Jennifer Egan, Junot Diaz, Dave Eggers and Jonathan Franzen - Freeman has talked to everyone. How to Read a Novelist is essential reading for every aspiring writer and engaged reader; the perfect companion for anyone who's ever curled up with a novel and wanted to know a bit more about the person who made that moment possible.